


Family Worth Saving

by Multifandom_damnation



Category: Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Bruises, Captivity, Death Wish, Despair, Desperation, Doubt, Escape, Gen, Heartache, I am so mean to Roy but I love him, Idiots in Love, Implied/Referenced Torture, Insults, Jason loves his boyfriend and is bad with children, Kidnapping, Kori is a badass as usual, Lian is alive don't fight me on this, Medical Inaccuracies, Multi, Name-Calling, Self-Sacrifice, Self-Worth Issues, Sleep Deprivation, Team as Family, stubborn children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-13 23:18:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16028057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multifandom_damnation/pseuds/Multifandom_damnation
Summary: Family means everything and a father is willing to do anything he can to save his daughter.Even if the situation is out of his control.It's a good thing this family is much larger than a father and his daughter.





	Family Worth Saving

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday to my dear Elizabeth x
> 
> Listen, LISTEN- I know in DC Lian is dead but FUCK CANON I love her too much not to include her in my work. I also don't know how old she is. She's a superhero but is still calling him 'daddy' so I don't know what I did. Also, I don't know much about Black Mask so sorry in advance.

“Roy…” Jason warned as he pulled against his bonds. His guns had been taken, ripped from his body just as he was ripped away from Kori and Roy and piled in a dark corner or the room. Kori sat silently beside him, cold and shivering, hair dulled and lips turning blue as she struggled to resist the effects of an ice ray, one Jason could easily identify as a product built by Mr Freeze.

The warehouse, while large and spacious, was nothing special. Wooden crates and boxes full of drugs littered the higher levels, conveyor belts and pulleys lined the walls, yellow forklifts sat idle and dulled in their stations. The catwalks above them, while usually filled with factory workers, now sported rows of thugs with guns pointed downwards, faces obscured by black balaclavas and bandannas.

In the centre of the usually empty warehouse floor did not sit walkways or boxes or factory machines, but a large, metal cage, reinforced on the outside by thick panes of glass. Breathing holes had been drilled into the places between the bars and a speaker and microphone set had been wired into it. Roy sat against a cage wall, bleeding and injured, as he glared at Black Mask who was sitting on a throne made from glad-wrapped drugs and money tied in small bricks.

“You worried about your boy, Hood?” Roman asked, laughter behind his words. “I wouldn’t if I were you. He’s not worth it.”

“Fuck you,” Kori shouted. She tried to struggle from her bonds but above them, there was the sound of many guns being cocked and turned to them. She stopped struggling as the red dots appeared on Jason’s chest.

“You see,” Roman continued as if nothing had happened. “I needed… compensation for all the times you’ve wronged me, Jason. And what’s a better payment than taking one of yours?” he stood and made his way over to Roy, rapping his knuckles on the glass as he spoke appreciably. “This bad boy took us ages to make. The iron had to be melted together and the glass had to be reinforced. I initially didn’t consider the glass until I figured you’d find some way to get to him through the bars and I decided a little extra precaution have never hurt anyone.”

From inside the cage, Roy was gasping as he put his face up to the microphone. “What have you done with my daughter, Mask?”

“Oh yes, the girl,” Roman said as if he’d forgotten. To be fair, Jason had too. Too many things had gone on in the span of a few minutes that the whole reason they had gone after Sionis was that he’d taken Lian from her school. “You need not worry about her. You’ll be reunited soon enough.”

“Why are you doing this, Roman?” Jason called, catching the attention of the mob boss. “What do you want with him?”

Scoffing, Roman walked leisurely around the cage, admiring his work and the captured man inside. “Well, I really wanted the girl but she’d proven to be quite a challenge. We went for the next best thing.” He shrugged. “An animal is an animal, no matter how you dress it up.”

“Well, I’m here now,” Kori growled and honestly, Jason had never heard such a guttural and frighting sound come from the beautiful woman next to him. “If you want me as your prize, come get me.”

“Oh, my dear Starfire.” Ronan chuckled as he slowly, leisurely, made his way towards the two bound heroes, the heels of his steel capped boots tapping ominously against the linoleum. “If I had wanted you, I would have already had you. But a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. I wanted Jason over there,” He nodded to Jason, glaring at Black Mask with lips twisted into a snarl. “And I thought to get you would work best but no… you are strong. No matter how long it took, eventually you would escape, or they would find you and all my hard work would be forgotten.” He crouched down, so close to them that Jason could hear every breath and oh, how desperately he wanted to strangle that man until he stopped breathing completely. “But the geek in the cage is your week link. Not important but… has his uses. Surely you understand that.”

From behind them, Roy’s voice came through the speaker, static like and clipped. “You never answered my question, Roman.”

“Oh don’t worry about her,” Roman said, standing up and waving Roy off. “You’ll be reunited soon enough. That’s where you’re going after this, really, so you won’t have to wait long.” He turned and walked towards the large metal roller door, the lights from above glinting dangerously against his mask. “I suppose I’ll leave you to say your goodbyes while I set up the truck. Don’t take long, I’ve got a very strict schedule that I’d like to keep.”

As the metal door slid closed with a bang, the men standing on the catwalk pulled up their guns and left through the emergency doors, leaving a bound Jason and Kori alone in the warehouse with a bleeding Roy. “Well, that could have worked out better.” Roy joked weakly. “You got any heat left, Princess?”

Kori shook her head sadly as she tugged fruitlessly at her binds. “I don’t know what they got me with, but it’s freezing. Are you alright?”

“No,” Roy answered honestly. “But I’ll be fine. I have to get to Lian, you know that right? Even if it means having them take me, I _need_ to get to her.”

“I know, Roytoy, but there has to be a way for us to all get out together.” Jason reasoned desperately. He glanced around the room for an escape, windows, doors, but was unsurprised when he found nothing. “There has to be a way.”

“I’m not so sure about that, Jaybird.” Roy’s voice was tired and oh so sad and when Jason looked up, his face was twisted into a smile that looked more like a grimace. His pale skin was mottled with purple bruises, there was blood dripping into his eyes from a cut somewhere in his hairline, he was holding his arm limply at his lap as blood dribbled from a gash in his side and he had tied off the bleeding from the bullet wound in his leg with a roll of duct tape he had found in his bag. “Not this time.”

“Don’t talk like that Roy.” Kori chided. “We’ll get you out of here.”

“If I die before I get to Lian, could you tell her how much I loved her?” Roy asked, quiet and resigned.

With a cry, Kori threw her body into the wall in frustration, cracks running like spider webs up the concrete. “No Roy! Don’t do that now! We’re going to get you out.”

“Yeah Roy, it won’t come to that.” Jason agreed. “It’s me he wants. Not you.”

“Yet it’s me sitting in a cage.” Roy pointed out and shit, why did he always have to be right? “You guys don’t have to coddle me. I’m fine… for now. Just focus on getting yourselves out and then if we have time, you can figure out how to break this glass.” He reached his hand up and tapped a knuckled on the glass above his head. “Really, glass? Who would have thought?”

“Yeah well, Roman has always been a paranoid asshole,” Jason said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if-”

Jason was cut off by the pressured release of gas and the hacking coughs of Roy from inside the cage as faintly yellow smoke began to billow out from a trap door in the glass and filled the box with the fumes, hiding Roy from sight.

“What the- Roy!” Jason called, trying to twist out of his bonds. Beside him, Kori screamed, loud and piercing, as she tried and failed to reach Roy.

After a few moments, the smoke cleared and there was a final image of Roy, leaning heavily on one arm, blood dribbling down his chin and his eyes rolling back into his head before he leant forward and collapsed. The roller door opened again and Black Mask stepped to the side as men with guns lined the cage, a large claw came out on a mechanical arm and latched around the cage, the sharp metal of the pincers digging into the glass.

“That was rather touching.” Black Mask clapped as the cage was lifted and slowly pulled out the roller door. Inside, Roy was being thrown around limply like a rag doll at every sudden shift of the cage. “But my schedule is more important than touching goodbyes. I’m sure that when your girl warms up you’ll find a way out of here and probably come after us, but that’ll be a useless attempt.”

The last signs of the cage disappeared through the metal door and after a moment, it was heard being lowered and dropped onto a truck. A large, metal door was slammed closed and someone shouted from outside. Black Mask turned his head to the other two and Jason just knew that Roman was grinning. “Well, I suppose this is goodbye. Don’t worry about your pet, he’s in good hands. And besides, you have each other right? How does that saying go… two’s a company, threes a crowd?”

Turning around, Roman chuckled as he left them and the door slammed shut behind him.

Jason wasn’t sure how long it was before Kori warmed up enough to pull out of her bindings and free Jason but his arms had gotten numb from being behind his back for so long and his heart was beating faster and faster each moment Roy was gone.

“We'll get him back,” Kori reassured as she helped him up off the floor. “We have to. He’s strong, he’ll be alright.”

“This is all my fault!” Jason roared as he pried a loose cinderblock from the wall and threw it across the room where it shattered on impact, the pieces scattering along the floor. “He used Roy to get to me and now he’s in a cage with a murdering lunatic and we-”

Kori’s lips against his shut him up. It was not a long kiss, or one of passion but one of desperation. “Hush,” she said gently, running a hand through his hair. “We’ll get him back. Right now, we need to think of a plan. We need to sleep. We need to heal."

“How can you ask me to go home when Roy and Lian need our help?” Jason demanded. “Because it’s not just Roy.”

With a sigh, Kori wrapped her strong arms around Jason and held him securely against her chest. “I know, Jay, but we can’t save them if we’re tired and hurt. We don’t have a choice- we need to start looking tomorrow, or the day after, just… not today.”

“I know,” Jason muttered against Kori. “I know. I just… can’t believe he took them. This is all my fault.”

“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but right now we won’t help them by feeling sorry for ourselves.” Kori pulled away and gripped Jason’s hand instead. “Come on- let’s go home.”

The safe house was too silent without Lian’s erratic giggling and Roy’s corny jokes. Jason found himself poking his head into Roy’s workshop, expecting to hear the banning of metal and the burst of flame from the welding torch.

With two steaming mugs in her grasp, Kori walked up to Jason in the centre of Roy’s workshop, staring at the wall. She shoved one of the mugs into his hands. “We won’t help them by panicking and missing them. We need to sleep and tomorrow we will search.”

“I don’t think I’d be able to,” Jason admitted. “You know I’ve never been good at sleeping when one of us is gone.”

“I know,” Kori said gently, eying Jason’s drink. It suddenly all made sense to Jason and with a sigh, he took a gulp of his drink, noting the grit under his teeth, and slipped into a painless, dreamless sleep, Kori’s arms catching him and lifting him to bed as he began to collapse.

4 days of incessant, desperate searching and there had been no sign of where Black Mask had gone. 4 days of worry and pain and heartache at having 2/4 of their soul taken from their home. 4 days of panic and painstaking learning any information they could about Black Mask led to nothing but hopelessness.

Then suddenly… a blip. A _literal_ blip, faint and rapid, on the outskirts of Gotham, near the pier. It came up on the visor of Jason’s helmet during another patrol and after they had abandoned the search and bolted home, Morse code was shining up on the computer in Roy’s workshop.

An address, one Jason knew well from his time as Robin and the Bat had dragged him to all sorts of stakeouts. “That brilliant bastard.” Jason praised as he saved the coordinates and dragged Kori out of the safe house and into the street.

The building was red brick and low to the ground, barnacle and seaweed stuck to the pock-marked bottom from the waves lapping up against it. While there were guards standing watch by the door, Jason knew that there was an entrance hatch at the top and Kori flew them up there noiselessly. 

Silently, they made their way through the dark corridors of the complex, dodging security cameras and sensors and quietly taking out any guard who tried to stop them.  
  
It wasn't until they came to a padlocked metal door that they spoke into the silence. "This place is huge," Kori whispered "How will we find them?  
  
"They might not even be here," Jason pointed out. "This could be a trap. Either way, we have to-" he was cut off by the sound of muffled sobbing and they both turned to the padlocked door. "Do you hear that?"  
  
Kori looked both excited and cautious at the same time. "Yes," she moved up to the door and placed her hand against it while Jason shifted so he could cover her from behind if they got caught. Slowly, the heat of her hand burnt a wide hole in the door, dripping red molten metal onto the floor.  
  
Inside was the cold, shivering form of a curled up child, one arm chained to the wall, school clothes dirtied and black hair falling into her wide, green eyes. When Kori poked her head through the door, she gasped. "Aunty Kori..." Lian reached her arms out as Kori easily broke the chains and wrapped her arms around Lian and pulled her out.  
  
"Hey Kid," Jason whispered solemnly as he kissed her on the head. "How are you doing?"  
  
"I didn't think you'd find me," Lian sniffed, pushing her hair out of her face.   
  
"Of course we would, dear," Kori cooed, holding Lian close and using her body heat to warm the child's cold skin. "We would never leave you."  
  
"Where's daddy?" Lian asked quietly, though she sounded like she was already expecting an answer she didn't want. "Did they take him too?"  
  
Exhaling air sharply through his nose, Jason reluctantly nodded. "They did. But don't you worry, we're going to get him back."  
  
"I heard some men dragging things that way," she pointed down the hallway, "I think it was a heavy box but they were talking about being careful."  
  
Jason and Kori exchanged glances as Jason ruffled her hair. "Good job kid," he praised. "You could be a real detective one day. Let's go get daddy."  
  
"Jason, wait," Kori gripped Jason’s arm with the one not currently holding Lian. "We can't bring Lian, we have to take her somewhere safe."  
  
As Jason was considering the suggestion, Lian scowled and glared at Kori, then at Jason. "No, I'm not going anywhere." She pouted and crossed her arms, which looked comical while she was being held. "If daddy's here, I want to find him. I know you brought my uniform. Let me help."  
  
Grinning, Jason lifted Lian from Kori's arms and squeezed her tightly before setting her gently down on the ground and unzipped the bag he'd been carrying over her shoulder. "As stubborn as your father. I love it." He grinned at an exasperated Kori as he pulled Lian's Speedy uniform out of the bag and handed it to Lian. "The queen has spoken. How can you say no to that face?"  
  
"This is so irresponsible," Kori muttered, digging her palms into her eyes. "She's a child, Jason."  
  
"Well, so is Roy, but we bring him along." Jason joked, catching the faint smile on Kori's lips as she dropped her hands to half-heartedly glare at him. "Come on Princess, it'll be fine."  
  
But Kori was no longer looking at Jason but at Lian, who was currently putting on the last of her uniform. "Lian, how did you get those?" Kori asked gently. Jason hadn't noticed before but there were bruises of different sizes and hues running up and down her arms. "Did they hurt you?"  
  
"Not on purpose," Lian shook her head. "I tried to run away but they were holding me."  
  
Breathing a sigh of relief, Jason patted Lian's shoulder. "Good girl, you did the right thing."  
  
Gripping Jason's chin, Lian turned his face to look at a corner of the wall, where a small box shining a red light on the floor was fixed. "That's an alarm," she explained, "I know because when I ran away, I passed it and it went off."  
  
Floating up, Kori eyes it from a distance. "It's in our way, but I can take care of it."  
  
Jason handed a very excited Lian her bow and quiver that he had carefully packed. "Are you ready?" Lian nodded eagerly. "Good. Let’s go find daddy."

After Kori took out the alarm with a swift burst of energy, the trio made their way through the twisting hallways until Lian pointed out the track marks of muddy feet and something heavy being dragged against the floor. Following it, they came to a door guarded by more masked men with guns and sensors that were most defiantly alarms.

While Lian wasn’t as good an archer as her father, she was no less deadly, and both men were taken out swiftly with arrows buried in their throats. Reaching up, Kori burned the sensors in her hands as she pulled them off the wall.

As Kori pulled the doors apart, Jason knelt down by Lian and placed his arm comfortably on her shoulder. “Listen, I don’t want you to get your hopes up, but Roy may or may not be behind this door. I don’t know,” he amended at Lian’s excitement. “But he could be. But he might not. But if he is, he might not be… alright. He might be hurt. And if he is, I don’t want you to panic.” Gosh, he was so bad at talking to children in stressful situations.

Nodding, Lian gave Jason a hug around the shoulders. When she pulled back, she was smiling, and Jason was struck by how much she looked like Roy. “I know. I’m not worried. Daddy’s brave and I know we’ll find him if he isn’t here. I’ve seen him hurt before.” She grinned widely and Jason had forgotten that she had lost one of her back teeth. “I’ve seen you hurt before too. It’ll be ok.”

The sound of Kori wrenching metal away from metal had Jason turning around to admire her as she stood there, two large pieces of metal held above her head, the jagged edges catching the glare from the overhead lights. She threw them behind her, where they crashed and clattered against the tiles. Where she held the door was a handprint burned and pressed into the metal. “That’s my girl,” Jason whispered, grabbing Lian’s hand and walking over.

Kori pushed the hair away from her face and behind her ear as they approached. “Are we ready?” She asked, panting slightly.

Looking at her in awe, Lian gasped at Kori. “Yeah,” she breathed. Chuckling, Kori reached down to ruffle her hair and with a laugh-filled grumble, Lian combed it back in place.

Jason went first, shouldering through the door with both guns raised high. A few guards rushed him from the darkness but Jason’s helmet picked them up in infra-red and Jason shot them in near silence. Eventually, the room was empty of guards and he signalled the others in, Kori floating in with her hair illuminating the room and Lian padding along behind her, an arrow already notched in her bow.

Picking around the dead bodies that now littered the ground, Jason walked towards the centre of the room. “Kori, take out all the alarms.” He said as he observed the many blinking lights and glowing buttons on the motherboard. “I’m surprised nothing’s went off yet.”

“It’s probably a trap,” Kori said easily as she ripped the sensors off the walls.

“Probably,” Jason agreed as his eyes wandered over the dashboard. “I’m gonna be honest with you, I don’t really know what any of this means.” He paused as his eyes caught sight of a glow-in-the-dark button that read ' _release'_ and really, that was as good a shot as any.

As he pressed it, there was the sound of gears being shifted and air pressure dropping as a large hole in the ground opened up, the computers and tables moving out of the way, and large glass cage rose from the ground, blue light glinting off of it and casting the figure inside it in shadow.

“Daddy!” Lian cried as she rushed forward, but Jason reached down and grabbed her shoulder before she could get too far. “What-  let me go!”

“Wait,” Jason hissed, looking at the keypad. There was a blue button that said ' _unlock'_. Tentatively, Jason pressed it. A surface of the cage swung open like a door and the yellowish smoke from before billowed out. Jason let go of Lian’s arm as the last of the vapour filtered away.

Sprinting to the open door, Lian slid inside on her knees and lifted her father head upon her lap, lightly slapping his face and whispering in his ear. As Kori and Jason came closer, Roy coughed weakly and his eyes fluttered open before his face was covered in a bundle of a relieved child.

“Hey Roytoy,” Jason said as he knelt down beside Lian. “Glad to have you back.”

“Took you long enough,” Roy coughed, sitting up and pulling Lian into his arms. “I thought I was going to be toast.”

Kori landed gently on the ground, legs folded beneath her, and placed a hand on Roy’s knee. “We would never leave you.”

Sighing, Roy buried his face into Lian’s hair and held her close. “I’m so proud of you,” he whispered as he closed his eyes. “So, so proud of you, honey.”

Lian wrapped her arms around Roy’s waist as much as she could and sobbed into his shirt. “I love you.”

Jason leant over to place a kiss on Roy’s head, Kori doing the same before he grabbed Roy by the elbow and lifted him up, Lian still held firmly in his arms. “Let’s get out of here.”

Suddenly, a bright light switched on and illuminated the previously dark room. Someone was clapping from the entrance and when Jason could blink away the spots in his eyes, he saw Black Mask standing in the wreckage of the doorway, head tilted. “Well, I honestly didn’t expect this.” He dropped his hands and took a step into the room. Before he could get any closer, Jason raised his hands and pointed his guns at Roman's chest. “Very well,” he said. “I don’t know how you found this complex but I must say, I’m both very impressed and very irritated.”

“The animal is smarter than he looks,” Kori snapped, standing. “Something you should have learnt before you took him from us.”

“Right, well,” Roman continued. “You can’t be allowed to stay. You ruined my fun so there isn’t any point in your living anymore, is there?” He raised his hand and the sound of many, many guns being cocked carried through the room. “Your time is short but I must say, it was fun while it lasted.”

In a moment of swift desperation, Jason glanced around the room, his eyes set on another button on the console. He threw himself against it and slammed his hand down on the button just as the guards got ready to fire and Roman laughed. “Oh Jason, there’s no need to try so hard anymore. You had a good run but now I’m afraid…”

Roman’s voice drifted out of Jason’s hearing as the glass cage they were all standing in plummeted down into the floor and dimly Jason wondered what he expected the button that said ' _drop'_ to do.

“Hold your breath!” Jason shouted as he watched the dangerous waves of the ocean rise up to meet their plunging cage. The water smashed against the side and a part of the glass fractured on impact but Jason pushed Roy in the direction of the open doorway, he and Kori following.

They burst from the ocean, waterlogged and panting, to the sirens of the complex going off and searchlights scanning the ocean. “You know,” Jason puffed, “I probably could have planned that better.”

“Are you kidding me?” Roy laughed, still holding Lian in his arms. “That may be the best thing that you’ve ever done.”

“I would like to believe that coming back from the dead is still on top,” Kori called as she paddled back to shore, too wet and cold to fly. “Come on, let’s get on dry land.”

Collapsing on the shore a few minutes later, they flopped onto the backs, spluttering and wheezing. “That could have gone better.” Roy huffed. “Please tell me we don’t have to make the whole trek home. Please tell me you brought a car or something.”

“Screw home,” Jason groaned as he wiped salt water off his face. “We’re crashing at Wayne Manor tonight.”

“Does this mean we get to see Uncle Dami?” Lian gasped, both in excitement and exhaustion.

Kori laughed, bright and twinkling and before they knew it, everyone else had joined in.

**Author's Note:**

> Lian is a blessing to this world and anyone who thinks otherwise can FUCKING FIGHT ME!!!


End file.
